I'm finally deciding to get into duck hunting after about 10 years of wanting to, and I've ready numerous places the best thing to do is find someone who is experienced who can teach you the ways. So, with that being said, are there any South Central PA duck hunters who want to teach a rookie a few things? I cook amazing food and brew amazing homebrew if that has any impact on your decision....

start scouting and get permission on places to hunt birds then ask this question. Every guy on here will teach you everything you need to know but break the ice and get spots to learn at. Most guys wont just up and take a newbie to there spots and show them how to hunt for fear of losing that spot. Just the way it is. I learned from a few guys off forums and i had the spots to offer them hunts and they returned hunts at there spot to.

PADuck wrote:start scouting and get permission on places to hunt birds then ask this question. Every guy on here will teach you everything you need to know but break the ice and get spots to learn at. Most guys wont just up and take a newbie to there spots and show them how to hunt for fear of losing that spot. Just the way it is. I learned from a few guys off forums and i had the spots to offer them hunts and they returned hunts at there spot to.

Heck, I don't even need to hunt with them, just being able to sit down and say here are some of the things you want to do, here's the things to look for when scouting an area, here's how to set decoys, etc.

Honestly, I don't even know how to identify possible spots to hunt. We have the conocheague but that's steam, not still water. How do you tell areas that flood? Heck, how do you even scout areas to hunt?

i never hunt fields just because i don't have access to them for waterfowl only deer food plots. If you have access to fields by all means try and scout them. The Key is scouting everyone will tell you this but it is true. Find a spot either water or field that you are allowed to hunt either state or private and take a pair of binos and note pad. go their at the times you would like to hunt and if you see birds write down everything about it. ex where they r landing, the time, the wind speed/ direction, the food source if they are on a field or the depth of the water. Another thing for scouting is look at the surrounding areas of where you are hunting make sure those birds have a food source and water and there will be birds in the area during the migration. the key is to find the birds and the exact location and time that they r landing if you do this more often then not you wont even have to call them the right decoy set up will bring them right in. once you see how the birds are landing then thats when you would worry about your decoy set up and that you can google and it will give you every wind situation and different decoy placements